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Girl, 15, commits suicide after friends share nude Snapchat video

"Tovonna was a freshman at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel. The teen had taken the gun from her mother’s purse. Just hours before Tovonna has expressed concern over a nude picture her friends had taken of her without her permission.

“Tovonna would say, ‘Mommy, I owe them; I owe them’. I said, ‘What do you mean you owe them?’ I couldn’t understand what was wrong,” Holton-Teamer said.

Hours after Tovonna’s death, the girl’s aunt took to Facebook in search of answers.

“I just said, ‘If anybody knows anything, what happened? Have you heard of anything? Do you know who these kids are who have the pictures?’ I thought it was just pictures and then the kids started inboxing me,” said Angel Scott, Tovonna’s aunt. Scott learned it*was actually a nude video of the girl, taken while she was in the shower.

“Everybody was out there talking about her and calling her names and they said it went up on social media, Snapchat. I’d never heard of that before about 3 something that afternoon,” she said.

Girl, 15, commits suicide after friends share nude Snapchat video

Deputies say teen's suicide had nothing to do with bullying or social media

Solei said she couldn’t see it happening, because she was in another room, but says she “could hear the sound of the belt hitting her skin. It sounded like she was hit about fifteen times,” the report said.

Other witnesses confirm the same account.

The police report says Tovonna also sent text messages to her boyfriend shortly before her suicide saying:

“I’m so dead” and “My mom hates me. I literally (expletive) up everything. I’m such a (expletive) up and I can’t do anything anymore. I’m truly sorry and I’ll always love you.”

"Soleil decided to come forward since the family was blaming her and her friends.

She said she did post a video clip of Tovonna on Snapchat, but she says Tovonna was not nude and agreed to post the video.

“I would never do anything to humiliate her or something like that. I would never do anything like that. I loved her so much,” Soleil said.""

(Has the existence of this video and it's contents (clothed vs unclothed) been proven?)

********************************************

"“It's very unfortunate that these accusations would come out against these students who did nothing wrong,” said Pasco County Schools Spokesperson Linda Cobbe. “And now it looks like they were responsible for this poor child's suicide. “

Pasco County Schools warned local media shortly after Tovonna’s suicide that the district had no record of her ever being bullied, as her mother claimed.""

(Is the school just trying to pass off any potential liability? Cover their behinds?)

"Soleil's attorney Jeffrey Brown also sent emails to Tampa Bay media outlets on June 10th, saying in part:

"I am aware that the mother and aunt of Tovonna Holton are alleging the narrative that “she (Tovonna) took her life after being filmed nude in the shower by peer students, who then shared and shamed her on Snapchat.” This narrative is untrue and not based on credible facts and is their opinion only…this is not a cyber bullying case. She did not take her life because of any Snapchat video and there was never any shaming. There is ample evidence left by Tovonna to substantiate this and the on-going criminal investigation is well aware of this evidence. *

So, please, do not continue to publish the narrative of cyber bullying because it could end up causing physical and emotional injury to innocent individuals including my client. People are reading and listening to this narrative and sending hate emails because they believe the narrative to be true. It would indeed be tragic if one of these people acted out on these hate emails after reading or listening to your coverage of cyber bullying and then we find out that this is not, and never has been, a case of cyber bullying.""